How Much Will the iPhone Really Cost You?

In a recent geeksugar poll 28 percent of readers said the iPhone's steep price tag was holding them back from buying the device. At $499 for a 4 GB model and and $599 for an 8GB model, coupled with the fact that many people will have to break their contract with their current phone service in order to sign up with Cingular, there's no denying that it's an expensive cell phone replacement. The high initial fee had many hopeful owners worried about monthly costs.

They are based on a new two-year service agreement with AT&T and are priced at $59.99 for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes and $99.99 for 1,350 minutes.

All plans include unlimited data (email and web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile and a one-time activation fee of $36. Apparently, family plans are also available and iPhone customers can choose from any of AT&T’s standard service plans.

The rates are comparable to the standard rates for other smartphones, which utilize both phone services and web browsing.

The contract I had for my Treo 650 started out at $120 a month. I noticed I wasn't using that many minutes and was safely able to reduce it to an $80 plan. With the iPhone I only need the $60 plan. Oh and did I mention I paid $599 for my Treo that was not high end technology, nor did it even have a 100mb's of storage let alone 8GB's. I'm just so perplexed by all the complaints about the price considering the features.